Technical Articles
2025-01-03

Current Development Status of RISC-V Single Board Computers

The report from Electronic Enthusiasts Network (by Wu Zipeng) states that a single board computer is a “young” term that emerged in 2018, referring to a computer that integrates a microprocessor, memory, and interface components on a single printed circuit board.
A single board computer is also referred to as a single board machine, which is closely related to microcontrollers; however, there are significant differences in their system composition. The concept of a single board machine has been introduced earlier, while microcontrollers are well-known as they integrate a microprocessor, memory, and interface components on a single chip. Regarding the development of RISC-V, we have seen many RISC-V MCUs recently, and today we will look at the development status of RISC-V single board computers.
Single board computers are important in embedded IoT and edge computing fields due to their small size, high flexibility, exceptional durability, and performance. They are especially suitable for harsh industrial environments where deployment space is limited, making it impossible to place regular computers and cooling devices, while still requiring an operating system to run, making industrial-grade single board computers the most suitable option.
According to research data from GIR (Global Info Research), the global revenue for single board computers (SBC) was $2.133 billion in 2021, and it is expected to grow to $2.902 billion by 2028. Although the market size for single board computers is much smaller than that of MCUs, it is still an important part of IoT development and greatly benefits the advancement and implementation of RISC-V.
The “first domestic RISC-V single board computer” was officially launched early last year by Sai Fang Technology. This RISC-V single board computer, based on the Linux operating system, is named “Starlight” and underwent over two years of independent research and development. It features a fanless design, compact size, and low power consumption while providing various scalability functions typical of desktop computers, significantly lowering the entry barrier for RISC-V, making it applicable in various fields such as machinery, transportation, and energy. According to the introduction, the “Starlight” has a size of only 85mm x 70mm, with a starting price of 868 yuan ($119). This single board computer is equipped with the Fang·Jinghong JH7100 SoC, featuring a dual-core 64-bit high-performance RISC-V CPU with 2MB of L2 cache and a maximum operating frequency of 1.2GHz.
Current Development Status of RISC-V Single Board Computers
Image source: Sai Fang Technology
Of course, some people also define “Starlight” as the “world’s first RISC-V single board computer,” proving that our country started relatively early in this field. Upon its release, “Starlight” attracted widespread attention abroad, with well-known tech bloggers on YouTube rushing to experience it and forming active discussions. At the “2022 (Seventh) Thinking Laboratory Forum,” “Starlight” was also awarded the “2021 Product of the Integrated Circuit Field.”
In May of this year, openEuler officially announced that the Euler open-source operating system (openEuler) successfully ran on Sai Fang Technology’s Fang·Starlight RISC-V single board computer, with successful adaptation of the basic software, smooth overall operation, and normal functioning of peripherals, which once again attracted widespread attention to “Starlight.”
Currently, besides “Starlight,” another notable RISC-V single board computer in China is the RVBoards-D1-Nezha.
The RVBoards-D1-Nezha is built on the Allwinner D1 single-core Xuantie C906 64-bit RISC-V processor chip, with a main frequency of 1.0 GHz, equipped with HiFi4 DSP and G2D 2D image accelerator. On the RVBoards-D1-Nezha, in addition to storage resources, there are rich interface resources including video, audio, USB, and network connections. It is reported that the RVBoards-D1-Nezha is priced at $99 in China and 599 yuan in the domestic market.
Current Development Status of RISC-V Single Board Computers
Image source: Pengfeng Technology
The reason I do not agree with some people defining “Starlight” as the “world’s first RISC-V single board computer” is that in terms of timeline, the HiFive series from the Silicon Valley startup SiFive was clearly earlier. As early as 2018, SiFive open-sourced the HiFive Unleashed single board computer, with a core chip of 1.5GHz U540 SoC, equipped with 8GB DDR4 (ECC), a Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) port, a microSD slot, and an FMC connector.
Current Development Status of RISC-V Single Board Computers
Image source: SiFive
However, after tasting the HiFive Unleashed single board computer, many were not satisfied with its limited 8GB DDR4. But the HiFive Unmatched, released in October 2020, still only had 8GB of RAM. Fortunately, SiFive released a 16GB RAM version of the HiFive Unmatched in December 2020.
Current Development Status of RISC-V Single Board Computers
Image source: SiFive
The HiFive Unmatched motherboard adopts a standard Mini-ITX size, equipped with SiFive FU740 SoC, featuring four 64-bit SiFive U74 processor cores, paired with an embedded 64-bit SiFive S7 processor core, supporting the RISC-V open-source instruction set architecture based on RISC, and can run with the U-Boot and Linux kernel built into Freedom U-SDK or a Linux operating system on an accompanying memory card. The price of HiFive Unmatched is $665.
Pine64, an open hardware company, is also vigorously promoting the development of RISC-V single board computers, stating that it will soon launch a RISC-V single board computer, which will be the most powerful RISC-V power supply board.
Now let’s take a look at the low-cost RISC-V single board computers. MangoPi previously launched a RISC-V single board computer priced at only $39, driven by the Allwinner Technology D1/F133A processor. However, at such a low price, it is hard to achieve satisfactory speed performance, and it only has 64MB of DDR2 storage space. Of course, MangoPi-Nezha is not the cheapest; Sipeed has launched the Lichee RV, equipped with Allwinner Technology D1 chips, which can be purchased for only $17 plus $5 shipping.
In addition, the RISC-V International Open Source Laboratory has also launched a RISC-V single board computer aimed at competing with the Raspberry Pi, named PicoRio. This single board computer adopts an entirely open-source model, from CPU design to PCB circuit design, to the core software of the operating system, all are open-source.
PicoRio is based on an open-source 64-bit RISC-V multi-core processor chip, version 1.0 supports Linux and the Google V8 JavaScript engine, with a power consumption level lower than that of the Raspberry Pi 4, but its price is still not at the level of the Raspberry Pi.
It can be seen that in the commercialized RISC-V single board computer sector, SiFive and domestic Sai Fang Technology are leading the way, while some low-cost RISC-V single board computers tend to choose Allwinner Technology D1 as the core. However, they still cannot compete with the Raspberry Pi unless other configurations are significantly downgraded, which poses a challenge for the development of RISC-V single board computers. At the same time, both ARM-based and x86-based single board computers have already performed well in terms of size standardization and functional customization. As a latecomer, RISC-V needs to present more “sincerity” to seize the market.
Current Development Status of RISC-V Single Board Computers

Current Development Status of RISC-V Single Board Computers

Statement: This article is original from Electronic Enthusiasts and must indicate the source above when reprinted. For group discussions, please add WeChat elecfans999, for submission of reports and interview requests, please send an email to [email protected].
More Hot Articles to Read
  • Minimum amount 17 yuan! Evergrande Automobile’s Tianjin factory becomes the subject of enforcement, uncertainty in mass production of Hengchi 5 soars
  • US e-cigarette giant Juul’s products forced off the shelves, global e-cigarettes face an end
  • Russia’s concerns over being cut off from Ubuntu, domestic operating systems welcome major breakthroughs!
  • Another major factory withdraws from China? It is rumored that NXP is closing its China APS R&D department
  • Real estate companies “self-rescue”, entering the third-generation semiconductor! Investment is hot, will production capacity be excessive?!

Related posts

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *